Sunshine Gives Boundary Road Project a Boost
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 @ 4:38 AM
Prince George, B.C. – It will be about another year yet before the 28-million-dollar Boundary Road project, linking Highways 16 East and 97 South, is completed.
Work on the road started in 2010, but exceptionally wet weather last year really bogged things down because the clay bed is sensitive to moisture and crews simply couldn’t work on the wet material. That had put the project well behind schedule. However, City of Prince George Engineering Assistant Jim Litzen says the recent warm, dry spell has really helped the contractor. “As to trying to determine if any ground has been made up schedule wise, it’s a big project and the contractor has additional forces out there working on it. They’ve made really good progress on it this construction season, that’s for sure.”
The original completion date was October 31st, 2012 and Litzen says there’s a long way to go yet. “I’d say its in the 45, 50 percent area complete. A lot of the deep underground work such as the storm main and sanitary main are near complete now. They’ve been working on the Boeing Road section on the north putting gravels in. They’re going to be ready for paving there possibly next week or shortly thereafter. The south end near Highway 97 they plan on doing the paving there as well. Then they’ll be focussing on getting all the gravels in for the road between those two points for the remainder of the season and will get as much work done as they can” before winter set is.
Litzen says it’s tough to pinpoint a completion date because you don’t know if you’re going to have an early or late start to winter, or what the weather and thaw will be like in the spring. He says paving an excavation can’t begin until the frost is out of the ground. Litzen says all that should be left to do next summer is installing the water main, which on this project is out of the roadway and off to the side in the boulevard. As well the entire project has a sidewalk on the east side, so that work will be done next summer.
Litzen says the main focus right now is getting Boeing Road and the new roundabout completed. The roundabout is at the intersection of Gunn Road, Boeing Road and the new Boundary Road.
And he says the fact the project is behind schedule does not add to the City’s cost. “Events such as weather , within the contract it doesn’t allow for any additional monies to be claimed by the contractor so it’s basically an extension to their schedule within the contract.” As of right now the building of Boundary Road is within budget. The project is funded by the federal and provincial governments, City of Prince George, as well as some private investment.
Comments
I wonder if anyone has aerial photos of this project. Would be nice to see.
“As to trying to determine if any ground has been made up schedule wise, itâs a big project and the contractor has additional forces out there working on it.”
Hmmm … very strange in this day of construction work and computerized scheduling capacity.
I remember the days of Trash80 computers when they were able to do that with a couple of eager programmers applying new tool with less computing capacity than today’s cell phones.
I guess it the City and other levels of Government are not going to spend additional money, then the contractor will be losing money. Unless he can afford to have men and equipment sitting around for a year.
If he can then maybe we are paying too much for this so called Connector.
I”m thinking some “experts” under-estimated the Pineview clay.
I do not have the faintest clue what this contract stipulates. However, civil projects such as this are generally done on a unit price basis, sometimes they are hooked onto changing material prices, such as apshalt and concrete.
If the contractor put a contingency for weather delay into a lump sum component, then I guess he is going to be spending that contingency rather than pocketing it.
The contractor may not be hurting, but in construction time is typically money and if he is not hurting he must have a lot of subs who do not have any other projects, or they do and they can move to those when this one is shut down or delayed.
Just as some experts underestimate the College Heights clay years ago, did not adjust their method of construction and we end up with undulating streets, sinking driveways and carports and drainage off small escarpments which flood yards and the occasional house.
Foundations all cracked to **** within a year, how do people up north cope with the tundra ?
Build on “underground stilts” commonly called piles …..
Did a few buildings in Ft.St.John, including the courthouse … all on pile foundations either to a solid strata or friction piles.
When it comes to roads, I am not sure. I have no experience with civil work but the new geotextiles do help apparently. Gravel works well. :-)
Just spread some more on top … that’s what the geotextiles are for, mitigates migrating gravel.
Permafrost …. build on piles with building a few feet off the top of the soil. All piping thatis typically underground built into above ground insultated/heated utilidors.
Proiperly build pressure treated wooden basements/foundation actually work better than poorly built concrete basements/foundations.
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